Q3 2018 Orange County Capital Market Figures

Commercial real estate investment volume in Orange County fell 20.7% year over year to $2.1 billion in Q3 2018. Total year-to-date investment was $5.7 billion, a noticeable increase of 16.4% from the first three quarters of 2017.

Excluding entity-level transactions, which is a better way to gauge the velocity of transactions, year-to-date investment volume was down similarly by only 14.3% from last year to $5.0 billion and Q3 2018 volume was down by 12.9% year-over-year to $1.7 billion.

The largest category of investors year to date was private buyers mostly looking for value-add opportunities. This category includes non-traded REITs, family office and private companies investing primarily their own capital. Purchases made by private buyers represented 63% of the investment total.

For the year ending Q3 2018, the NCREIF Property Index (NPI) produced a return of 8.5% (value appreciation of +3.8%, income +4.5%), up from a low of 8.0% one year ago. The rate of return was slightly higher than the national rate of 7.2%.